"Elle" <honda.lioness@nospam.earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:O%Ang.2245$ii.1559@newsread3.news.pas.earthli nk.net...
>I tried inquring about this at the one Usenet Isuzu newsgroup but am not
>getting any feedback.
>
> Friends of mine have a 2000, 3.5 Liter, 4-wheel drive, automatic
> transmission, Isuzu Trooper. While driving it up a large hill (really, the
> foothills of a serious Western mountain range), the car stopped running. I
> don't have the details on this, but subsequently, they had it towed to a
> nearby mechanic who works on Isuzus and he said it had thrown a rod. The
> car is currently sitting in the lot of another friend who has some
> background in auto/truck mechanics but has not yet had a chance to look at
> it. I am going to look under the hood sometime in the near future and try
> to verify the thrown rod and destruction of the engine. The owner said he
> was a bit remiss about oil changes but did have them done every 10k miles
> or one year at least. Some questions:
>
> -- From my googling, a thrown rod can be very obvious: A steel rod pushes
> through the crankcase or engine block. Can it also be not so obvious? E.g.
> suppose the rod has disconnected from the piston head, and it's just
> banging around inside the cylinder. The latter scenario presumes the
> vehicle was stopped quickly. What else can I look for? I am not sure I
> will be able to try to start it up yet.
>
> -- I have been making online inquiries of salvage yards about (1) used
> cylinder blocks; (2) used, entire engines. Dumb question but I'm not quite
> clear on this point: Does it matter whether the used engine was attached
> to a 2WD Isuzu Trooper? It seems both 2WD and 4WD Troopers, of the same
> 3.5 Liter engine displacement, are available.
>
> -- I am getting quotes back in the $3k-$4k range but from yards many
> states away. Shipping seems pretty reasonable and common. Has anyone
> purchased an engine or cylinder block from several states away? What kind
> of assurances can I get about the condition of the engine? One seller so
> far has said he has a CarFax report verifying the engine has only seen 32k
> miles. I plan to check locally, too.
>
> -- Evidently going up hills in too high a gear can throw a rod. The high
> gear translates to low revs but high torque, stressing, from what I
> understand, the piston rod, crankshaft, and associated bearings. Can
> anyone elaborate further on this? It might help me to identify whether a
> rod was actually thrown.
>
> -- I understand installing a new engine is around a day's work, maybe
> less. This so? I am going to try to get a quote for the labor from my
> favorite import shop in mind but will also inquire at the nearest Isuzu
> dealer. Anything in particular I should ask them other than: "How much to
> remove an old engine and install a second-hand one?"
>
> The owners of this car do an astonishing amount of volunteer work in
> animal rescue. They are down to one truck (while normally having two).
> Given the circumstances, your assistance is especially appreciated.
>
> (Honda note: Isuzu has done some business on the trucking side with
> Honda.)
>
>
>

Bad mojo! I have only seen two thrown rods personally, and both times the
rod came through the crankcase but was not sticking out. I don't think
that's always true. In both cases (a Subaru and a Toyota) the engine was
pretty worn and had known oil pressure problems that were not worth tracking
down in so old a car. In each of those the diagnosis wasn't hard because
there were pieces of crankcase on the ground under the engine, which seemed
somewhat irregular....

One caveat on the engine swap - don't forget to address the problem of
dealing with the refrigerant if the vehicle has A/C. Maybe the compressor
will swing out of the way and the hoses won't be threaded through anything
important, but when was the last time you were so lucky?

Mike